Great Game Can`t Hide The Ugliness

October 16, 1988|By Bernie Lincicome, Chicago Tribune.

NOTRE DAME, IND. — Somewhere in the rolling chaos, before the bitter regrets, among the savage collision of intercollegiate impudence-parking lot T-shirts swore this was a competition to divide the Catholics from the Convicts without making clear which side was which-was a terrific football game, a game for the ages. Stone, I think.

Miami and Notre Dame. It is never a meeting of chums.

``I think the two schools really need to talk about not playing each other for a while,` said Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz. ``I think we need a cooling down period. I`m talking about as soon as next year.

``This is a very emotional series, and nothing that happened today helped settle it down.``

One of the first things that happened was Holtz boasting that Notre Dame would win, the coaching equivalent of snoring in church.

``Only 25,000 people heard me,`` Holtz said.

The rivalry apparently so inflamed the usually very controlled Holtz that at a pep rally the night before the game he suggested the crowd go tell Miami coach Jimmy Johnson that Notre Dame was going to beat him.

``I woke up at 4:45 in the morning and asked myself, `Did I really say that?` ``

He did say it and later confessed to his team that he had put them on the spot.

``Not just Coach Holtz,`` said safety George Streeter. ``All our fans wrote a check, and we had to cash it.``

Had the pep ralliers actually gone looking for Johnson, they would have found him encamped at a local motel that is festooned with Irish memorabilia. In Johnson`s suite was a large display of the 1973 team, one of Notre Dame`s 10 national champions.

Johnson, chastised for having his Hurricanes run up the score, particularly four years ago against Notre Dame, pointed out to visitors that the Irish had squeaked by such formidable opposition as Army 62-3 and in the last game of that year, Miami 44-0.

``Amazing isn`t, it?`` Johnson sneered.

And before the kickoff, before violence could become statistically encouraged, the two teams couldn`t even finish calisthentics without hitting each other.

``First, there was just a lot of talk,`` said Notre Dame tight end Derek Brown, ``and then all hell broke loose.``

Define hell.

``Well, a pushin` and a shovin` and a punchin` and a pokin` in the eye.`` ``They attacked us,`` said Johnson.

``They taunted our players and hit our players,`` said Holtz.

This all took place near the mouth of the tunnel that leads to the two teams` locker rooms. Soft-capped cops in short-sleeved shirts had to break up the tussle.

``It could have gotten ugly,`` said Holtz, like a proud father who wants to scold and kiss his son`s black eye at the same time, ``but we were not about to be intimidated.``

Eventually, the two teams had to play a football game, otherwise CBS and a nation of curious strangers would have had to find other amusements on a glorious autumn day.

It was then the most significant thing of all happened.

Notre Dame won. Notre Dame won for the first time in five years. Not cleanly, not without Miami`s help, certainly not convincingly enough to keep Miami from suggesting larceny.

``You tell me how we can have first and goal on the 1-yard line and have the ball turned the other way,`` said Johnson. ``I don`t understand it.``

Me either. The play that upset Johnson might have tied the game in the middle of the fourth quarter so that Miami could have won by a field goal later instead of trying a two-point conversion that failed.

Miami back Cleveland Gary may have fumbled, or made a first down. Or failed to get a first down, or even scored a touchdown. Of those

possibilities, the officials chose a fumble, though in my view it should have been first down Miami at the 1.

``He did not score. He fumbled,`` said Streeter, the tackler, who was not viewing things with an impartial eye.

That Holtz should suggest a search for sanity after finally beating Miami and that the place to start should be in Miami next season is a bit suspicious.

But what is clear is that the rivalry between these two schools has passed healthy competition and has become something worse.

``Notre Dame is a great institution,`` said Johnson. ``It has a great team. It has great fans. It is to be complimented.``

If saracasm were fruitflies, Johnson could eat an orchard.

It was a game fueled by revenge and rage and loud applause, all good scholastic motives, a game that started before it began and ended before it finished, a victory stolen or a victory earned. It may never be clear which.

What is indelible is the score: Notre Dame 31, Miami 30, and as is usual in these lofty decisions, the loser thinks it was jobbed and the winner shrugs and hugs itself.

``We should have won the game,`` said Johnson.

``I think they are the best team in the country,`` said Holtz, ``just not today.``

``Not only do I think we are the best team in the country,`` said Johnson,``but we are the classiest team in the country.``